French pharmaceutical producer Sanofi and German biotech firm BioNTech have agreed a multi-year exclusive collaboration and license agreement aimed at leveraging their respective expertise in oncology and immunology to discover and develop up to five cancer immunotherapies, each consisting of a mixture of synthetic messenger RNAs (mRNAs).

Under the agreement, BioNTech will receive $60 million in upfront and near-term milestone payments as well as more than $300 million in development, regulatory and commercial milestones and other payments per product.

The German partner would also be eligible for tiered royalties on net sales up to double digits if a drug was commercialized. Additionally, BioNTech would have the option to co-develop and co-commercialize two of the five mRNA therapeutics products with Sanofi in the EU and US markets.

“Immunotherapy has shown promise as an avenue to develop potentially curative treatments for people with cancer, and Sanofi has strategically launched a number of inter-company collaborations in this area in recent months," said Elias Zerhouni, President, Global R&D at the French drugmaker, adding that the collaboration with BioNTech “has the potential to lay the foundation for a unique therapeutic modality in immuno-oncology.”

Ugur Sahin, CEO of BioNTech said the implementation of the company’s “broad suite of mRNA technologies and extensive tumor immunology understanding” will allow it to develop a completely new class of cancer immune-therapeutics with Sanofi, which it believes “will have a profound and deep impact on the treatment of cancer.”